


stalagmite

by confessa



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Missing Scene, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Slow Build, and I have a huge WIP I want to finish, happiness what happiness, just trying to get back into the swing of writing again, so I needed to start writing fics for the MCU again, the only emotions I can write for Romanogers, the trailer had me screaming internally
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 10:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16952112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confessa/pseuds/confessa
Summary: She turned to him. The sight of her smile made his chest constrict painfully. She was still here, after all. He wasn’t alone.+++I'm hoping to drop some random "missing scenes" in this fic to get back into the swing of writing. First one is post-IW, sometime at the start of the next Avengers movie.





	stalagmite

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is called stalagmite - because it's going to take a few hundred thousand years for me to add any new content to it. -laughs hysterically- 
> 
> I have not beta-read this...by which I mean I read it through twice and refuse to do anything more to edit it. I'm sorry.

 

 

The Compound was quiet. Uncomfortably, stiflingly quiet. There should have been sounds of chatter, random bursts of laughter, footsteps clicking, the tings of elevators and bells and just the bustle of life echoing through its walls. Instead, Steve strained to hear any sounds other than the soft whistle of the wind blowing outside from time to time. He wondered if it was this way even before Thanos snapped half the universe away. He wondered if this was what Tony had to live with, for two whole years after the Avengers split up and the Initiative that Fury had begun crumbled into-

 

 _Ashes_.

 

Steve pulled his thoughts away from the word. It brought with it memories of dust and fading people. Bucky falling to the ground, Vision lying colourless, lifeless, the slow realisation after frantic calls that Sam had disappeared too. The cries of parents, children, wives, husbands and more - grief-stricken and horrified, the terror in their eyes and their screams etched into Steve’s brain like chalk scraping harshly against a blackboard, a piercing, sharp pain accompanying every image and every echo of a sound that flashed through his mind. Their return to the Compound had been meant to bring some respite, but it had only brought about more pain. Pepper standing alone in an empty living room, an employee clearing out his desk methodically after being the only one left out of his entire department, voice messages from a woman called May Parker - crying, asking where her boy was, sobbing that he was only sixteen. It all seemed like a nightmare - too surreal to be true. He felt a tear slip down his face. Outside the glass windows, the trees swayed peacefully, blissfully unaware of the pain around them.

 

His shoulders were tense, his body heavy, as if weighed down by all that had happened. In the past, when bad things happened, it seemed like someone had always had a plan. A stupid plan, maybe. A ridiculous, outrageous plan, more often than not, no thanks to Tony, but a plan nonetheless. Steve knew what to do. Oppose the plan, follow it, or modify it. His options were clear. But things were different this time. Tony wasn’t here. Thor had retreated into the shadows in the days since the Snap, as people were beginning to call it. Bruce was still tinkering away in the empty labs trying to locate Tony, Clint and other missing persons. Rhodey and Natasha were fronting most of the media work. Steve should have been the one to do it, but Natasha had seen his face when what remained of the press and the world's leaders approached them for answers, and volunteered herself and Rhodey up for the role instead.

 

“You need to start moving, soon.” Natasha had told him recently, a measured look in her eyes. When he hadn’t responded, she had continued, her voice dropping just a tad lower. He knew her well enough by now to pick out the slightest change in her intonations. She was trying to be kind to him. “Anything will do. People need us right now. It’s not easy but this was the burden we accepted when we became the Avengers.”

 

“Are we still the Avengers?”

 

“The Avengers did not die with Nick Fury and Tony Stark.” Her voice was firm, almost reprimanding. Like a mother explaining something gently to a young child. “It was an idea, and ideas don’t die easily, not as long as people are still there to keep it alive.”

 

He had joked then that she might have been Fury in disguise, and the conversation had moved on to lighter topics, but Steve knew she was right. He couldn’t stay in this slump forever. He had no doubt Natasha had approached Thor to say the same thing, and probably Banner, who had seemed more animated in the past few days whenever he wandered out of his lab. Steve felt a pang of guilt. Bruce, Rhodey and Natasha had all been trying so hard, and Steve had done nothing to help them, instead choosing to wallow in his own guilt and sorrow. Everyone had lost someone. He was not special.

 

His ears picked up the sound of the front door opening and closing. It was Natasha’s footsteps. He could recognise them anytime. You got to know a person intimately when you spent two years on the run with them. Sam, Wanda, Natasha…

 

She was the only one left.

 

Steve felt an irrationally strong need to see her, right that moment. He got up from his seat, striding towards where the footsteps were coming from, turning through hallways to catch up to her. She seemed to be heading up to the labs. He caught up just as she was about to enter a lift.

 

“Natasha.”

 

She turned to him. The sight of her smile made his chest constrict painfully. She was still here, after all. He wasn’t alone.

 

“Hey, Cap, heard you thundering down the halls.”

 

“Yeah. I heard you coming in.”

 

The lift doors opened behind her with a soft ting and Friday's smooth voice floated out, asking where Natasha wished to go. She tilted her head, a silent signal to follow her. But he stayed put, his feet stuck to the ground. If they went in, they would be in the labs within 30 seconds, a minute tops. Bruce would be there, no doubt, maybe Rhodey. They wouldn’t be alone anymore, and for a wild few seconds, Steve felt a sudden yearning to be back on the run again, in a hotel room with just Natasha and Sam by his side, eating dry pizza and complaining about bad reception and how Wanda abandoned them way too often now for not-so-secret getaways with Vision. It was ridiculous, terrible. He should have yearned for something else. A part of him felt disgusted, like he was insulting Bucky and Tony and the rest by not thinking of some other time.

 

“You look like a hundred different emotions are battling for supremacy on your face.”

 

The flurry of thoughts were dispelled instantly. Natasha looked highly amused. She stepped away from the lift, taking leisurely steps towards him instead.

 

“So what is that brain of yours up to?”

 

Steve chuckled, the intensity of his guilt and disgust easing away, replaced by mild embarrassment. “I’ve been acting funny recently, haven’t I?”

 

“Yeah, I was thinking the genie messed up my wish for you to be a little funnier.”

 

“Hilarious, Romanoff.” He said drily, but he could feel a smile - a genuine smile - working its way to his face. “I do have good humour.”

 

“You are good-humoured. Whether you are humorous is a completely different issue.”

 

Sam would have butted in by now, with some smartass comment. Wanda might have rolled her eyes and left the room. Those times were gone now though. This was the now.

 

“I just wanted to say...you were right-”

 

“I’m always right.”

 

“-about the Avengers.” Steve finished, narrowing his eyes playfully, but feeling a weight lift off his shoulders as he continued to speak. “About how it’s an idea, and ideas don’t die easily, not as long as we keep them alive.”

 

Natasha still had a mischievous smirk on her face, but there was something in her eyes that softened. She was touched, relieved, happy - he could read all those emotions. He knew her like the back of his hand.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Natasha stayed silent for a little while, eyes searching his own as she looked up at him. He let her, knew that she needed her time. They never did need a lot of words to communicate. It was not in their nature to speak much. They had learned to use body language and eye contact to do most of the legwork for them instead. It was one of the top reasons why they worked so well together on the battlefield. Sam had often accused them of leaving him out of fight preps and training, but the truth was - and Sam himself realised this quickly - that they didn’t need to say anything out loud. They just _knew_.

 

So Steve let the seconds tick by as Natasha read what she needed from his face. And if that meant just a few more moments alone with her, standing close, looking at him like there was nothing else in the world, it didn’t hurt either. Nothing would come of it, so such thoughts didn’t mean anything. He just enjoyed them for what they were.

 

Eventually, Natasha found what she needed. She looked satisfied, nodding to herself as she turned away, beckoning for him to join her. This time, Steve followed.

 

“So what did those five seconds of soul-searching tell you?” Steve joked, as he stepped into the lift with her.

 

“That I liked you better with the beard.”

 

“...Now that hurt.”

 

“Thor: 1. Steve: 0.”

 

“When did this become a battle for looks with Thor?”

 

“It was the one thing you had going for you.”

 

“I...can't even deny that.”

 

“Of course you can't.” Then, another smile, the kind that made him want to freeze the moment for a little while. “I’ll always like you more though, so don’t worry.”

 

And that was it, as they stepped through the lab doors. It was all Steve needed. 

 

 

 

 


End file.
